Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day started over two thousand years ago, as a winter festival, on15 February. On that day, pagans asked their gods to give them good fruit and vegetables, and strong animals.
When the Christians came to Britain, they came with a story about a man called Saint Valentine. The story is that Valentine was a christian who he lived in the third century ( between the years 200 and 300 ). The Roman Emperor at the time, Claudius II, was not a christian. Claudius decided that his soldiers must not marry, because married soldiers do not make good soldiers. Valentine worked for the church, and one day he helped a soldier to get married. The Emperor said that Valentine had to die because he did wrong. In prison Valentine started to love the daughter a man who worked in the prison. The day he died, he sent a note to this woman, and at the end of the note, he said: ' Your Valentine'. He died on 14 February, so the date of the festival changed from 15 to 14 February, and the name changed to Saint Valentine's Day.
In the early nineteenth century, when the post office started in Britain, people started to sent Valentine's cards to the person they loved on 14 February.
The cards had pictures of flowers and birds on, and words inside like:

Rose are red, my love,
Violets are blue,
Sugar is sweet, my love,
But not as sweet as you.

People still send each other Valentine's cards, but often they do not write their names inside: they just write ' Be my Valentine', or ' From your Valentine'. It is a kind of game.
Some children give their friends or teachers cards or chocolates. A man will perhaps give his girlfriend or wife red roses.
Alt of people go out to restaurants for the evening and have dinner for two, with candles and soft music.




source: Seasons and Celebrations  by Jackie Maguire